San Francisco Classical Voice

OPERA REVIEW Another Rosenkavalier, The Met's, in N.Y.

December 9, 2000

Susanne Mentzer (Octavian)

Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz (Sophie)
Eric Halfvarson (Ochs)

By Robert P. Commanday

One good Der Rosenkavalier deserves another. With the sound of the San Francisco Opera's production still in the mind, the concurrent one at the Metropolitan Opera clearly could not be overlooked on a trip to New York last week. It wasn't a matter of making comparisons. Each had its strengths, each its weaknesses, both were memorable. As with San Francisco's performance, the Octavian stood out in New York at the Saturday matinee. Susanne Mentzer was indelible for a radiance that made the love Octavian discovers in Sophie the touching point of the performance. Normally, properly, the emotional crux of the matter would be found in the Marschallin's acknowledgment of time and the reality that compel her to surrender her young lover, but Cheryl Studer gave no sense of that, oddly enough, not a clue. While singing finely enough in her generous voice, Studer portrayed the Marschallin as a self-indulgent, affectionate but not especially sympathetic figure.

Mentzer, on the other hand, lit up the house when she first sets eyes on Sophie, a smile that was a visual resonance of that clear, shining voice. Her acting in the manner of a boy and in the manner of a boy acting as a girl, was as good as could be wanted, her interactions with Baron Ochs and tenderness with Sophie just charming.

The Met's First American-born Ochs

The Ochs led the performance with her, Sven Halfvarson, a triumph for the first American-born Ochs in the Met's 87-year history with the work, certainly the first in my experience. (An interesting correction to that last comment may be found in the "Listeners Box," below.) He had the style to be both the boorish, woman-chasing lout of a country nobleman and the charm to make you like and enjoy him the whole while. To be "offensive" onstage yet not a villain to the viewer, that takes class and he had it. His bass, as listeners to the broadcast would have heard, was ample, lined with the rich buzz that makes it carry, the "Wienerisch" of Ochs' language with rural overtones sounded rang authentically.

The Norwegian coloratura Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, pretty and petite, looked the part of the not-yet 16 Sophie to a T but her tiny voice couldn't carry, certainly not in the wonderful duets with Octavian and the time-stopping treasure which is the concluding trio. Other roles were successful. The deep-voiced British baritone Alan Opie, played Faninal with appropriate pompousness but not as a caricature. Marcelo Alvarez was fine as the Italian singer. Others who distinguished themselves included Claudia Waite (the duenna Marianne), and Wendy White and Anthony Laciura (the Italian intriguers).

The Nathaniel Merrill production, designed by Robert O'Hearn, dating from 1969, is elegant and impressive as ever. Granted that the staging of Strauss' opera, like the opera's of Mozart, Figaro and Cosi especially, is pre-fixed by the music, Bruce Donnell's implementation, long since memorialized in the production book, is refined and excellent, with not a waste motion and fine touches throughout.

The Czech-born Jiri Kout was the conductor, and while hyperactive to the point where it must be distracting to the musicians, he got excellent results, knowing and shaping this rich and exuberant effervescent score splendidly. And the magnificent Met orchestra gave it the loving performance it deserves. Sixty hours later and the music is still playing in the memory.

Met Broadcasts Over The Internet

Now, fans of the Met broadcasts here and elsewhere in the country have a new source. The Saturday matinees are now available, "streaming" over certain web sites. In the Bay Area, it is the web site for one of the two stations broadcasting the Met live over AM, www.kbzs,com, or on one of the other stations doing this elsewhere. The only catch is that until broad band becomes more prevalent, only a small number of listeners can listen at one time. So, it will be first come, first served for the time being.

"Although the station streaming the broadcast might be an AM station, the broadcast won't be in AM sound," Ellen Godfrey, the Met's Radio Network Producer, said yesterday. "You'll hear it in stereo through your computer's speakers." Obviously, having the speakers and the audio software, which is readily available and free is necessary. "The thing to do is to enter either the Met's web site, www.met.org and go into the broadcast page, or go to Texaco's web site, www.texaco.com and look under "What we support," Godfrey added. "In a couple of weeks, on the Met's web site, there'll be a list of the participating radio stations, with their web sites," she promised.

(Robert P. Commanday, the editor of San Francisco Classical Voice, was the music critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, 1965-93, and before that a conductor and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.)